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The exploits of Sonya "the Black Widow" Thomas (65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes, 40 seconds), Eric "Badlands" Booker (49 glazed doughnuts in eight minutes) and Takeru "the Tsunami" Kobayashi (17.7 pounds of cow brains in 15 minutes) may not be recognizable records yet. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE, pronounced Eye-Fose) wants to change that, or at the very least send its versions of The Rock -- maybe "Cookie" Jarvis or Don "Moses" Lerman -- on to Hollywood for B-movie acting careers. These are the stars of the IFOCE competitive eating circuit. You may have seen their jaw strength, capacity, hand speed -- and, some would say, propensity for "catching a burp" at just the right time -- in action on Fox's coverage of the Glutton Bowl, on the Food Network, or by chance at a local fair or restaurant promotion.

Ryan Nerz's Eat This Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit offers an inside look at these omnivorous spectacles. In detailing his experiences as an IFOCE MC over the course of a year, Nerz profiles leading "gurgitators," as they're known on the circuit; offers a tongue-in-cheek history of competitive eating, from the Romans to the annual July 4th Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Competition; and provides eyewitness accounts of IFOCE events such as Wing Bowl, the Stockton Deep Fried Asparagus Eating Competition, and the Bacci World Pizza Eating Championship. In the process, Nerz describes gustatory feats so colossal, it's impossible not to rubberneck.

Be warned: This book isn't really edible, and the author's participant-observer status within IFOCE raises questions about his objectivity. But if you're hungry for an inside look at the personalities, strategies and theories involved in the competitive eating circuit's subculture, read this book. Just keep some Alka-Seltzer nearby.